


flirting with nerds for dummies

by twoheadlights (fizzfic)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Nerd!Dan, like marshmallow its gross, phan highschool au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 19:50:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5388125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fizzfic/pseuds/twoheadlights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m going to fight him.” Phil announces. </p><p>Olivia doesn’t look up from her Maths homework and says, “Yes, that’ll impress him for sure.” She puts her pencil down and looks at Phil now. “We have an exam in like, three weeks. You should put your mind into that if you want to make it to the end of the year.”</p><p>or the one in which dan likes maths and phil likes dan</p>
            </blockquote>





	flirting with nerds for dummies

**Author's Note:**

> i hate maths and i can’t write high school au’s so this was obviously a good idea ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ also since i’m not british idk what the syllabus is, but that’s why fiction is so important
> 
> (you can read and reblog the fic on [ tumblr ](http://phanwich.tumblr.com/post/127786623080/flirting-with-nerds-for-dummies) too!)

_You’re staring_. Phil crumples up the note Olivia passed him and glares at her. She shrugs and goes back to solving more problems on the board.

He sighs, and looks down at his own unsolved problems (arithmetic or otherwise). It’s bad enough that he has double Maths on a  _Monday_ , but the fact that they’ve been given a whole exercise with about ten questions to do within that time is just preposterous to him. The numbers and letters (honestly, who let the alphabet be added into this already ridiculous subject?!) dance across the page, taunting him. He groans quietly and puts his head in his hands. A few seconds after contemplating how to make himself feel better, he peeks through his fingers and his eyes fall on what he was previously staring at -  _who_ he was staring at. Wait no, not staring; that’s creepy as fuck, even for him.  _Admiring_ , more like.

Dan “I’m smarter than most kids in this class, can recite Shakespeare off the top of my head, coloured my hair that one time to lilac for a week and made everyone fall in love with me” Howell. The problem is, Phil’s kind of  _still_ in love with him, even if the rest of the school isn’t. Not just because of the lilac hair - which complimented his entire well-tanned face and brown eyes and all  _so_ well - even though that did contribute to the feel in a big way, but because he’s just a wonderful person. Phil recalls the time he spotted Dan outside of school for the first time. He was outside the public library, seated on the steps and reading a rather large book. Phil has the attention span of a fish so he probably couldn’t read more than two paragraphs of a book (he prefers waiting for the movie), but he was intrigued by this boy who seemed to  _enjoy_  reading such a voluminous book. It was…nice to see his face have little reactions to whatever he was reading - frowning, small smiles, little breaths when he’d read something funny.

Since then, Phil noticed Dan Howell more in school. He noticed how he was nice to everyone around him, blushed whenever a teacher complimented him, only spoke in class when asked questions specifically, which didn’t make sense to Phil at all. More than once, he’d caught Dan with a fully solved problem in Maths class but he would never volunteer to write it on the board and would let someone else do it. He doesn’t understand it - if he was as good at Maths as Dan obviously is, he wouldn’t shut up in class.

“I’m going to talk to him.” Phil says determinately to Olivia as the class files out for break.

She raises an eyebrow at him impressively. “Actual communication? Wow, make sure to use protection.”

Phil shoves her playfully. “Shut up. Look, as  _small_ as he might look, Dan’s fucking smart. Those kind of people intimidate me.”

“He’s not that small.” Olivia frowns, looking across the courtyard where Dan Howell sat, his nose in another book, this time not as long as before. “I thought he’s like, six feet tall.”

Phil rolls his eyes. Olivia doesn’t get it. Dan is  _small_  and in need of protection.

“Go on. Talk to him.”

Phil gulps. “Um, right.”

Olivia giggles. “I cannot believe Phil Michael Lester who isn’t afraid of  _anything_ , is quivering at the thought of conversing with his über smart crush.”

“Shut  _up_.”

-

Walking right into Dan’s backpack isn’t the best start to the friendship he’d hoped would happen.

Dan jumps about two thousand feet into the air and yells murder before realizing who it is. “Oh, I-I’m sorry.” He says, flushing the deepest red possible. Phil opens his mouth and closes it again.  _Ohhhhhhh no. Oh god, please let this be a dream. I can’t talk to him like this, not_ now. But apparently he’s not dreaming and Dan Howell is actually right there and assumes that Phil really isn’t going to say anything and is turning around to walk away.

“Hey, you’re in my Maths class!” Phil blurts. Dan turns right back around and replies, “Um, yeah I am. And English.”

“I knew that.” Phil says defensively. “It’s just…we haven’t had English yet.” He has to use all his body strength to not curl into a ball and cringe.  _We haven’t had English yet_. What?(???????????)

“Right.” Dan tries again to walk away to wherever he needed to but Phil opens his big mouth again.

“Wait. Um, hi. I’m Phil.” He wills for his hand to stop shaking as he holds it out for Dan to shake. The latter takes it and replies, “I know. I’m Dan.” His hand is warm and soft and Phil wonders for a second if Dan moisturises.

“I know.” They remain like that, just holding each other’s hands before noticing a few glances turn their way. Dan pulls away first and rubs the back of his neck. “Well, I’ll see you around then, I guess.” 

“Yes, absolutely.” Phil says definitively. “English, yeah?”

The faintest of smiles appears on Dan’s face. “English. Sure.”

He finally walks away and Phil turns to go his own way - only to walk right into a bin. He swears and prays Dan had turned into a corner and hadn’t seen that.

-

“I’m going to fight him.” Phil announces.

Olivia doesn’t look up from her Maths homework and says, “Yes, that’ll impress him for sure.” She puts her pencil down and looks at Phil now. “We have an exam in like, two weeks. You should put your mind into that if you want to make it to the end of the year.”

Phil scoffs, and looks out across the school courtyard, where on a round table a few kids sat with their noses in books, just like Olivia. Okay, so he’s taking exams a little lightly, but it’s not like Phil is dumb. His only weak subjects are Maths and Geography, and he can get by even those with a little help from his friends.

He sees Dan come out of the building and walk to his usual spot under an oak tree, where he sits and reads or does homework, in his little Dan bubble.

Suddenly, a light bulb shines over Phil’s head. “Oh my God.” He says, his eyes widening. “I have the best idea ever.”

Olivia hums, not paying attention. Phil rolls his eyes and strides confidently to the oak tree. Dan doesn’t notice him in front of him and Phil has to keep chanting to himself, don’t fumble don’t fumble, don’t fumble but Dan’s fringe is curling at the tips and he’s frowning at the graph he’s just made and oh god -

“Linear equations are a real pain, aren’t they?”

 _What_?

Dan looks up, his pupils a little blown from concentrating too hard. His mouth is a little open and he replies, “Kinda. They take practice.”

Phil nods knowingly although he doesn’t really know anything about it.

“Mhm. Hey, I was wondering, y’know, you’re the smartest kid in class -” Dan’s cheeks flush a little, “and I’m…not, and I’m struggling with a few things here and there. I was wondering, do you want to, fuck, I don’t know, get together and do some revision together?”

Dan’s eyes widen and he says, “Me?”

Phil nods, his confidence coming back to him. “Yes, you. Like I said, you’re the smartest kid in class. I’d like to get the best help I can.” He smiles at Dan, who’s obviously getting flustered. A few seconds later, he smiles back at Phil.

“Sure, yeah. I’d like to revise together.”

-

The prospect of being in Dan’s room for maybe even hours, is frightening and also thrilling. He knocks on the door lightly. Footsteps pad along the floor on the other side. The door opens and Phil has to try his best not to drop his books and kiss him right there. Dan’s hair isn’t straightened, and he’s wearing a black t-shirt with Darth Vader’s face on it. He smiles tiredly at Phil and gives him a small wave. “Hi.” He says. “Come on in. You’re punctual.”

Phil follows him inside, looking around at his walls. They’re not covered in posters, like he’s expecting. There is one medium sized painting at the head of his bed, of wolves flying with the moon in the background, and Phil’s immediately intrigued. The room itself isn’t too messy, and everything seems to be colour coordinated and Phil comments on it.

Dan laughs lightly (an angel is born), and says, “That’s because you’re here. You should see it usually.”

 _He cleaned for me_ , Phil thinks.  _I love him_.

Whoa, brain. Calm down.

Dan faces him and spreads his arms wide. “Well, let’s get started, shall we?”

-

“Oh my God, I think I’ve got it!” Phil exclaims, pulling on Dan’s sleeve. “The graph looks exactly like the one in the textbook.”

Dan grins at his page and says, “It does! Well done, Phil, I knew you’d get it.”

Phil flicks his fringe out of his eyes and smiles. “Well, I mean, you explain it so well. Much better than how Mr. Patil does.” Dan blushes slightly at that, just like whenever a teacher compliments anything he does.

He looks back down at the work he’s done to stop himself from kissing Dan’s cheek. He can’t wait until he gets his actual first A* in a Maths exam. Imagine that.

-

One day of practice isn’t enough though. Phil spends more time in Dan’s room than his own for the next few days. The two of them bond, and Phil finds they have a lot in common. Eventually, they’d end up abandoning their books, lying in Dan’s bed, staring at the ceiling and agreeing that  _yes, Harry made the worst decision naming his kid Albus Severus and that he definitely got bullied for it are you kidding me_

Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but Phil sometimes feels Dan’s eyes on him when he’s not looking and he  _definitely_ does that to him every time. He always encourages Phil with compliments when he gets problems right and touches his arm, sending electricity shooting through his body.

So maybe. Hopefully.

For days, he’s been trying to figure out how to tell Dan about his feelings. So many times he’s wanted to just blurt it out, but now that he knows so much about him, Phil knows Dan appreciates creativity. And then he sees a sample question paper on his desk and it hits him.

-

“Hey Dan.” Phil whispers to the back of Dan’s neck. Now that they’re friends, Phil convinced Dan to sit at the back of the classroom, just in front of him so he can (try to) distract him every two minutes. It doesn’t work, usually.

Dan leans back on his chair to listen. Phil passes him a folded note, his hand shaking slightly. “It’s for you.”

He’d written a note. But not just any note. He wrote down a formula, which Dan had to make a graph of.

Dan opened it and after about three seconds, turned back to  Phil with a raised eyebrow. “ _Read it_ ,” Phil mouths and looks down at his own work.

The bells rings, and Phil darts to the door before anyone else can even pack their bags. He can’t be in Dan’s presence. It’s too embarrassing. And what if it’s wrong?

 _It’s not wrong_ , the rational part of him reminds him.  _You did it yourself, remember_?

Right.

The rest of the day is free, so he heads to the courtyard. Writing in his leather bound journal always calms him down so he starts rambling about everything and nothing in it.

_I gave him the note and oh my god I feel a little nauseous to be honest. What if he doesn’t like me back? It’s like, I actually genuinely enjoy being his friend and I wouldn’t want to lose that just because he doesn’t feel the same way?? But I don’t think he’d want to be friends, it’d be too awkward for him, oh god what have I done_

A paper falls on his book. It has a graph on it:

                                        

His eyes widen and he looks up at Dan standing behind him.“So I read your note.” He says. “Well, solved it.”

“And?” Phil asks, and chews on his lower lip.

Dan bends so their faces are level with each other. He gives Phil a small smile and whispers, “You shouldn’t chew your lips, it makes them worse.” He leans in and Phil’s brain kicks into action, realizing what’s happening, and he closes the gap between them. Phil thinks Dan should be one to talk, since his lips are chapped beyond repair, but not necessarily bad for kissing.

“You’re a nerd.” Dan murmurs against his mouth. Phil chuckles and runs his fingers through Dan’s hair, feeling each soft lock.

-

_Dan._

_I’ve been thinking about how to tell you this. I didn’t come to you for help with Maths all those days ago. Well, I did kind of. I suck at Maths, a fact you may be aware of by now. Anyway, that wasn’t the REAL reason. The truth is, Dan, well. I don’t know how to say it properly so, here’s an equation. I_

_you._

_PS: If I somehow messed it up, it’s supposed to be a heart. Cool, huh?_

 


End file.
